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Average typing speed - what is a good WPM?

The largest study of typing ever run measured an average of 51.6 words per minute across 168,960 people, though its participants chose to take a typing test and so skew faster than everyone else; 40 WPM is the safer figure for the general population. On phones the same group measured 36.2 WPM. Anything above roughly 55 WPM is faster than the typical office worker, and 70 WPM and up puts you in the top fifth of that study's typists.

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The average typing speed, and where the number comes from

Most sites quote 40 WPM without saying who counted. The number worth quoting comes from a 2018 study by Aalto University and the University of Cambridge, which recorded 136 million keystrokes from 168,960 people and measured an average of 51.56 WPM, with a standard deviation of 20.2. That is the largest typing measurement published, and it is the one this page uses. It carries one caveat that matters more than the figure. Everyone in it volunteered for an online typing test, and people who choose to take a typing test are not a random sample of people who type. Treat 51.6 as the average among people who type deliberately, and the familiar 40 WPM as the more honest estimate for a general population that includes everyone who never thinks about it. The same group ran the equivalent study on phones in 2019 across 37,370 volunteers and measured 36.2 WPM with 2.3 percent of errors left uncorrected. Two thumbs beat one, which is how about three quarters of that group typed, and there was a clear generational split: typists in their teens averaged roughly 10 WPM more than typists in their forties. If your phone number and your keyboard number differ by fifteen, nothing is wrong with either.

A WPM chart you can place yourself on

Percentages below are read off the 2018 study's mean of 51.6 and spread of 20.2, treating that spread as roughly normal. They describe that population, not the whole world. Under 25 WPM. Hunting and pecking, eyes on the keyboard between words. Every keystroke costs a glance down and back up, which is what caps the speed rather than finger movement. 25 to 39 WPM. Most keys from memory, a few still searched for. This is below the threshold of every Indian government typing exam and below most data entry job filters. 40 to 54 WPM. The middle of the distribution. Enough for ordinary office work, email and note taking, and enough to clear the SSC CHSL and RRB NTPC bars with room to spare. 55 to 69 WPM. Touch typing properly, without looking. Faster than roughly three in five of the study's typists. Writing stops waiting for your hands at about this point. 70 to 89 WPM. Fast. Around 70 WPM you pass four in five of that study; by the high eighties it is closer to nineteen in twenty. Sustained rather than burst speed is what separates this band from the one below. 90 to 109 WPM. Rare outside people who type for a living, and usually the product of years rather than of a practice regime. 110 WPM and above. The top of the study's range; its authors note that the fastest participants reached 120 WPM or more. Above this the constraint is the keyboard and the passage, not the typist.

Is 88 WPM good? Reading one specific number

30 WPM clears the RRB NTPC English bar and the Hindi bar on several state exams, and clears very little else. 35 WPM is the SSC CHSL English requirement, so it is the number a great many people are aiming at exactly rather than exceeding. 40 WPM is where most data entry postings set their filter. 60 WPM is a comfortable professional speed and above the average by half a standard deviation. 88 WPM is genuinely fast: about 1.8 standard deviations above the 2018 study's mean, which puts it near the 97th percentile of that group. It is faster than any Indian government typing exam asks for by a factor of two and a half, and faster than any office role needs. 100 WPM is a milestone people train for rather than arrive at. 120 WPM is the edge of the published range. Numbers in the hundreds are usually a different unit. If you have seen 250 or 500 quoted, it is almost certainly characters or keystrokes per minute rather than words, and dividing by five converts it: 250 keystrokes per minute is 50 WPM. Spain's oposiciones and several Indian exams set their bars in keystrokes for exactly this reason. Court stenographers do exceed 200 words per minute, but on a chorded stenotype machine that types whole syllables per stroke, not on a QWERTY keyboard.

What counts as good depends on what is measuring you

There is no single passing speed, so the useful question is never whether a number is good but whether it clears the specific bar in front of you. Indian government typing tests sit between 25 and 35 WPM depending on the commission and the language, and the exam guides list each one with the figure and the date it was checked. Data entry and clerical job postings commonly ask for 40 to 50 WPM, usually alongside an accuracy floor that matters more than the speed. Spain's oposiciones do not score in words at all: they count net keystrokes per minute and deduct six for every error. Accuracy is what most of these bars actually turn on. A 95 percent accuracy requirement at 35 WPM is a harder target than 45 WPM at whatever accuracy you land on, because the errors compound: every wrong character costs the character and the correction. Check both together on a typing test rather than chasing the speed number alone.

Why your own number moves between tests

A single result is a noisy estimate. The passage matters, because common words type faster than unfamiliar ones and punctuation and capitals cost time that plain lowercase prose does not. The duration matters, because a 30 second test rewards a burst that a 5 minute test will not let you hold. The keyboard matters, and switching between a laptop and an external board can cost several words per minute for a week. Which number a site reports matters most of all. A raw figure counts every keystroke including the wrong ones; a net figure counts only the characters you got right, which is what exams score. The gap between them widens with your error rate, so a fast careless run can report a much better raw number than net. Raw WPM and net WPM sets out the arithmetic. Take three or four runs across different passages and read the middle of them, not the best one.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

  • What is the average typing speed?

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    About 51.6 words per minute, measured across 168,960 people in the largest published typing study, with a standard deviation of 20.2. On a phone the same researchers measured 36.2 WPM. Since everyone in both studies volunteered for a typing test, 40 WPM is the safer estimate for the general population.

  • Is 88 WPM a good typing speed?

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    Yes, clearly. It sits about 1.8 standard deviations above the mean of the 2018 study, near its 97th percentile, and it is roughly two and a half times what any Indian government typing exam requires. There is no ordinary job that needs more.

  • Is 40 WPM slow?

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    No, it is close to a realistic population average and it clears the SSC CHSL, RRB NTPC and most state clerical thresholds. It is below the 51.6 WPM measured among people who seek out typing tests, which is a different and faster group than everyone who types.

  • What is a good typing speed for a data entry job?

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    Most data entry and clerical postings ask for 40 to 50 words per minute, and nearly all of them pair it with an accuracy floor around 95 percent. The accuracy half is usually the harder one to hold, because each error costs both the wrong character and its correction.

  • How fast can the fastest typists type?

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    The 2018 study reported its fastest participants at 120 words per minute and above on an ordinary keyboard. Figures well beyond that usually come from a chorded stenotype machine, which types whole syllables per stroke and is a different instrument entirely.

  • How long does it take to get above average?

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    Moving from hunting and pecking into the 50s is mostly a matter of learning to type without looking, which takes a few weeks of short daily sessions rather than months. Progress slows sharply after that, and gains past 70 WPM tend to come from removing specific weak keys rather than from typing more.

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